Blog Stats

Manny Ramirez hit his 500th home run tonight, becoming the 24th player to reach the milestone. He also joined an even more exclusive club:

“The drive enabled Ramirez to become only the seventh player in baseball history with 500 homers, 1,500 RBIs, 1,000 walks, 475 doubles and a .300 batting average. The others are Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Mel Ott, Babe Ruth, Frank Thomas and Ted Williams.”

Now, usually I hate when these sort of groups are created. Writers do this all the time when players are up for election to the hall of fame. They try to make an argument that someone belongs in the hall by finding a group of players in the hall with the same numbers as the candidate (Bill James calls it the “We Can Make A Group Argument”). On the surface these lists always seem impressive; but that is the point of the lists. The fact is, you can do it for any player and try to make an argument they are hall of fame worthy based on any combination of statistics. That being said, THIS list is impressive, and Manny is a definite hall of famer (and I’m sure Frank Thomas will have his fair share of support as well).

It is also interesting that Manny hit his 500th at Camden Yards, which was home to the other Manny highlight of the season so far.